Art Rubbish

A cleaner in Italy tidied up Sala Murat's Mediating Landscape exhibition and threw out works made of newspapers, cardboard and cookie pieces scattered across the floor. Believe it or not, this rubbish is supposedly worth £8,200. One look at the photo and you see that the cleaner was absolutely right. So how can a load of old rubbish be worth £8,200? That's the insanity of the contemporary art lark for you. It isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened. In 2001 a cleaner disposed of a Damien Hirst display made of beer bottles, coffee cups and overflowing ashtrays, and in 2004 a cleaner at Tate Britain threw out a bag of paper and cardboard by Gustav Metzger (CLICK).